The Purple Dress
by willow15
Summary: This is an "Alanna goes to the convent" fic. In this one, Thom doesn't take over Alanna's place in Corus. It stars out telling of what life was like for Alanna in at the Convent. Rated PG for now.
1. Trebond

A/n: this is an "Alanna goes to the convent fic". These kinds are my favorite. If you know of a good one could you tell me the title or the author in a review, that is if you review. This is my first fic so don't be too hard on me. (I don't mean in your reviews, I love flames.)

A/n: please forgive my spelling.

Disclaimer: I only own my original ideas, everything else came from Tammy or someone else's fic :-)

The Purple Dress

Chapter 1: Trebond

"That is my decision. We need not discuss it," said the man at the desk. He was already looking as a book. His two children left the room, closing the door behind them.

"He doesn't want us around," the muttered. "He doesn't care what we want."

" We know that," was the girl's answer. "He doesn't care about anything, except his books and scrolls."

The boy hit the wall. "I don't want to be a knight! I want to be a sorcerer! I want to slay demons and walk with the gods—"

"D'you think I want to be a lady?" his sister asked. "'Walk slowly, Alanna,'" she said primly. "'Sit still, Alanna. Shoulders back, Alanna.' As if that's all I can do with myself!" She paced the floor. "There has to be another way."

The boy watched the girl. Thom and Alanna of Trebond were twins, both with red hair and purple eyes. The only difference between them—as far as most people could tell—was the length of their hair. In face and body shape, dressed alike, they would have looked alike.

"Face it," Thom told Alanna. "Tomorrow you leave for the convent, and I go to the palace. That's it."

"Why do you get all the fun?" she complained. "I'll have to learn sewing and dancing. You'll study tilting, fencing—"

"D'you think I like that stuff?" he yelled. "I hate falling down and whacking at things! You're the one who likes it, not me!"

She grinned. "You should've been Alanna. They always teach the girls magic-—"The thought hit her so suddenly that she gasped. "Thom. That's it!"

From the look on her face, Thom knew his sister had just come up with yet another crazy idea. "What's it?" he asked suspiciously.

Alanna looked around and checked the hall for servants. "Tomorrow he gives us the letters for the man who trains the pages and the people at the convent. You can imitate his writing, so you can do new letters, saying we're twin boys. You can go to the convent. Say in the letter that you're to be a sorcerer. The Daughters of the Goddess are the ones who train young boys in magic, remember? When you're older, they'll send you to the priests. And I'll go to the palace and learn to be a knight!"

Suddenly a noise startled them. They turned around, both open mouthed at their father standing there angrier then they had ever seen him. His mouth opened and closed several times before he could get out, "G-Go to your own rooms, Right Now!"

Both children still just staring ran to their own rooms.

The girl, Alanna, thinking, 'There goes my chance to be a warrior maiden. I hate my father.'

The boy, Thom, thinking, 'At least now Alanna isn't mad at me, I didn't even get a chance to tell Alanna her plan would never work and was stupid.'


	2. On the Road to the City of the Gods

A/n: this is the first real chapter I've ever written. The last one was mostly from the book. If you have any ideas of how I can make my fic better please tell me. I don't care if you send a flame. I want to know.

A/n: any thing you recognize probably belongs to Tammy. In the last chapter I was kidding about taking stuff from other peoples fics. I know how hard it is to write these and would never steal from anyone. :-)

The Purple Dress

Chapter Two: On the Road to

the City of the Gods

In the morning the two children in Lord Alan's office were at the glummest they had ever been. And he knew why and smiled. If they had gone through with their plan, when they were found out He would have been a laughing stock and probably banished from Tortall and all his books. He shuddered. That would be horrible. The library he had now had taken him his whole life, he could never rebuild it.

The children were so mad at their father that they couldn't look at him. If they had they only would have gotten madder at the fact that he was smiling. When the two letters came into their vision they both grabbed their own and practically ran out of the room.

When Alanna got to her room she through on her riding clothes grabbed the rest of her stuff and fled the room of her childhood, wishing with all her might that it had been longer.

When Thom got to his room he very slowly got ready. He wasn't as mad as Alanna. In fact most of it was an act. He was quite happy to leave. No more having to ward his room so no one would know that he was practicing magic. No more having to come up with excuses to cover up his magic use. He was sure that he would be able to find all sorts of magic stuff in Corus. Like books and amulets. He could even get Alanna to send him the things he couldn't find. Sure he would have to fight and would get hit a lot, but he could deal. To get away from the current restrictions on life he would do almost anything.

As he left his room Thom put on his pouty, mad face and went down the hall.

When Thom saw his sister waiting for him outside, for a moment he didn't have to fake his pout. She was the one thing he was actually going to miss around here. He went up and hugged her then the two of them got on their ponies and road away with Coram and Maude.

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The four road on in silence. Coram and Maude knew this must be hard on the children, tonight would be their first night more than a few feet apart. As soon as they were old enough they had asked for rooms that were right next to each other and then had there beds as close as they could, only the wall separated them as they slept.

The children were each wrapped up in there own thoughts. Alanna was wondering how long it would take her father to find the mess she had left for him. She hadn't destroyed anything but it would take him a long time to clean up his precious library. She guessed at least a couple of months.

Thom was thinking about how he was glad he had stole one of his father's books before Alanna had gotten to them. He thought he had seen a spell for an illusion in there that just might fit his purpose. He also memorized a spell that would let him stay awake for days on end. He wasn't going anywhere unprepared.

Their paths split all to soon and the next thing either of them knew they were hugging at the fork in the road. Thom told her his idea about her sending him books on magic. She thought this over for a second, as a smile broke out over her face she said, "Only if you send me weapons and instructions," then in Coram's gruff voice, "so I can continue to properly use them," then in her own voice she added, "and so I don't hurt myself. He smiled at that and they walked back to their ponies to wait for Coram and Maude to finish saying goodbye.

Thom's last thought as he saw his sister go was of how much he loved her and was going to miss her.

As Alanna road off down the road her last thought as she watched her brother go was that there was still hope for her to become a warrior maiden.

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When they stopped for noon lunch the silence between Maude and Alanna was a comfortable one. As soon as they started ridding again Maude began to talk. She said, "Last night the gods gave me a vision. They said that you have to use your gift and if you don't something very bad will happen." While she said this Alanna had been gapping at her. She had had almost the same dream. In fact she had had it several times; she had just always ignored it. Hearing that Maude had the same dream she decided to start using her gift in small amounts once in a while. She only had the dream when she hadn't used her magic in awhile.

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For the next three days Alanna's life followed a kind of pattern. Get up, eat, ride, eat, ride, eat, sleep then do it again. On the forth day she got up, ate and then road for about an hour before she saw an entire city made of white. All the building were so plain she almost cried in sadness. This place looked so depressing, her home for the next 6 years was just so depressing. But she, Alanna, would never cry, she refused to. All she could think about as they road to the gate was how hard it was to just not cry.


	3. Life in a Convent

A/n: I hate reading fics where the author just talks in there a/n's about how they want all these reviews so I'm not going to do that. Please send me flames.

A/n: Usual disclaimer applies. :-)

The Purple Dress

Chapter Three: Life

In a Convent

As they walked in Alanna couldn't help but think how the hostlers had looked at her funny. She heard them betting, "A gold noble on that one lasting a week." "Nah, I give her a month. She's got a lot of sprit. It will take the Ladies a little longer than a week to break her."

She knew something they didn't. She knew she would never let herself be broken.

Alanna and Maude went into the First Daughter's office. Alanna did her best to act proper and the First Daughter bought it. Alanna calmly handed over the letter her father had written. The daughter looked it over and smiled. The girl, Alanna was her name, looked nice enough but the letter said she should be a challenge, the First Daughter loved challenges. What she said out loud was, "Everything looks to be in order. Maria will show you to your room. Mistress Maude will you be staying with us long?"

Maude answered, "For a week, then I must be heading back." Unlike Coram who was staying with Thom till he was knighted, Maude was only on this trip for two reasons. So Alanna didn't have to go alone and so Alanna didn't try to run away.

The First Daughter replied, "Laura please take Mistress Maude to one of the guest rooms in the West Wing. Lunch will be served in two hours."

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Maude had just gotten to the room she was to stay in when a novice came running up and gave her a letter. She quickly told Laura, " Please tell Alanna that I had to go back to Trebond, and that it's urgent." Maude muttered a thank you as Laura bobbed her head. She then went to the First Daughter and explained why she had to leave. Everyone in the House Trebond and the town it supported had gotten the flu and she was needed to help.

The First Daughter told her, " Go, take our fastest horse we'll send you things right now on your horse. They should arrive in a few days. Go."

As Maude left she thought it almost seemed as if the First Daughter was glad she was gone.

(A/n: I just couldn't think of what Maude would do there so I sent her home. I don't think that flu will have any affect on the future story.)

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Alanna and Maria were walking down the hall when Alanna asked, "What is the average day like here, I mean what time do girls do things and what do they do in there free time?"

Maria smiled and said, "You have sprit, don't let the First Daughter or any of the Daughters of the Goddess for that matter. They might tell the First Daughter, and she takes some sort of sick pleasure in breaking the sprit of young girls." That simple little sentence told Alanna that Maria might be a good friend to have, and she thought to herself, 'it's okay to have some friends.'

Alanna smiled and replied, "I don't know it might be fun being broken." And at that they both started giggling.

Alanna added, "But you still haven't answered my question on what the girls do around here."

Maria told her, "Well you get up and get ready by 9:30 when you eat. Then at 10:00 you do sewing and embroidery. At 11:00 you have a half an hour of learning how to talk, like what to say to different classes of people and what's appropriate to say in certain company. Then another half an hour to get ready for lunch which is at noon. At 1:00 you have etiquette, like how far to curtsey to different classes of people and how to receive flowers from different people. At 2:00 you have a misc. class, like maybe a week of riding a horse then a week of cooking, all sorts of odd things that they think you need to know but there isn't enough stuff to make a whole class dedicated to it. Then you have free time from 4:00 to 6:00 when you eat dinner. They don't give you a bedtime unless you are so tired in class you fall asleep or you do something bad at night and get caught. Most girls in their free time gossip of embroider things." Just about this time they got to Alanna's room. Maria quickly added, " I'll come get you in an hour and a half for lunch."

Maria left and Alanna looked around her room. She could almost understand why the girls were embroidering so much. To make pretty colorful things to put over these drab white plain walls.

Alanna unpacked all her stuff in just a few minutes. Then she just sat on her bed for a minute before deciding to try out her new resolution to use her magic by spelling her door so only she and some one she wanted could open it. She put the same spell on the window before telling the window and door to let Maria open them.

She just finished when there was a knock at the door. She opened it to let Laura in. She told Alanna that, "Mistress Maude has left in a hurry and one of the Daughters will inform you why later." She seemed very mad that she, Laura, couldn't tell Alanna why Maude had left.

Alanna thanked her and said she need to unpack. Laura noticing that Alanna had already unpacked, gave Alanna a dirty look and left. Alanna decided that she didn't like the girl and started to examine her window. She noticed that people could see in. She decided that before she did anything suspisious she would have to spell it not to show what she was doing. But she would have to wait till tomorrow. She thought, 'Now that I've decided to use my magic, I seem to use it a lot don't I.'


End file.
